The Black Masquerade

by Andrea Pearson

  “Did you really have to go to the bathroom right then?” he asked the moment our doors were shut. “You couldn’t have waited for me to join you?”

  I couldn’t help it. I laughed. “Would you have joined me in the bathroom? That’s awkward, Abel. And yes, I did have to go. And no, I wasn’t going to wait for you. We’d have had to go to the bathroom at my house to let you ‘join’ me. And you said my house was off limits.”

  Abel growled. “You could have died. And there wouldn’t have been anything I could’ve done.”

  I sighed. “I know. And I’m sorry about that. They must’ve been waiting for me to be alone.”

  Abel glanced over at me with a smile on his face as he pulled around the corner of the building and got into the drive-through line. “You did good, by the way. Two hounds? And obviously they’re of the stronger variety if they came while the effects of the effigy haven’t fully worn off.”

  “I killed the one first, then got the dog by surprise the moment it came through the corner. And the effigy’s effects have probably worn off by now. Hopefully, the other hounds were watching and realize that coming after me is a bad idea.”

  Abel smiled. “It definitely is.”

  He was paying for our food when the first cop car raced into the parking lot. I ducked down, pretending to be grabbing something from my purse. I’d answer questions later, but right then, we had work to do.

  Abel ate as he drove. I was impressed with his skill at the wheel while shoving a huge burger in his mouth. Maybe I shouldn’t have been—the man had probably been living out of his car for a while, traveling all over the place, doing jobs.

  Just as we were entering Alpine, I got a text from Detective Evans.

  Thanks for the mess in the girls’ bathroom at Wendy’s. Seems I’ll be cleaning up after you more and more as these demons figure out where you are. :-) Don’t worry about filling paperwork for this—I’ll take care of it. There isn’t really evidence of a struggle, and the guy didn’t die from any apparent wounds you inflicted.

  Oh, and the woman will be fine.

  Good.

  You’re welcome. And thanks. Let me know if you need anything.

  Then I put my phone away. “What’s our plan?” I asked. “We can’t exactly waltz up the canyon.”

  “No, but luckily, vampires don’t like sunlight.”

  “I know the owners of the house at the mouth of the canyon. I’ve helped keep a few wildfires from burning their place down. Let’s go talk to them and find out if they would be willing to let us hike up their property. We might be able to get a good view into the canyon without actually taking the trail.”

  Abel agreed, and I directed him to the house. Margo was home when we knocked. I explained what was going on, using the same story I’d used at the storage facilities. People hiding out in the canyon, storing explosives they planned to use at the masquerade ball that weekend, and would she be okay with us trekking through her property to investigate?

  She was definitely fine with it and even supplied us with some camo netting her husband used when he went hunting.

  I put the netting on over my black clothes, dismayed at how much of a square shape it made me into. I turned to see how Abel looked in his and mock-glared. Somehow, he made it look good. Totally not fair.

  “What?” he asked, completely oblivious to the cause for my annoyance.

  “Never mind.”

  The netting dragged when I walked, and instead of holding it up, we ended up tying it around both ankles, forming pantaloons of sorts. The overall effect was one of a holey, puke-green burlap bag. Definitely not my sexiest moment.

  I caught Abel staring at me, though, with a half smile. He paused next to me and brushed a finger down my face before tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. I froze, enjoying the reaction my body had to his touch. Whoa. I definitely was still attracted to him.

  And he knew it.

  Chapter 17

  Abel stepped closer, resting his hand behind my neck, rubbing circles on the sensitive skin below my ear with his thumb.

  “I never would’ve thought camo could be hot,” he said, his eyes not leaving mine.

  I cleared my throat. “Because it’s not.”

  His gaze strayed to my lips, and I took a step back. “Let’s get going.” Regardless of how much I enjoyed the reaction my body had to him, I had no desire to encourage any physical involvement—not when he’d been so hostile to me.

  Even knowing that any vampires up the canyon would be sleeping during the day, I was still nervous about being on their turf. Abel produced several wooden stakes from his duffel bag, and we strapped them to our upper arms and thighs before hiking up Margo’s backyard. I felt as ready as I ever would.

  The tall pines kept us protected from the trail. We hadn’t gone far before I realized how silly we’d been. We could’ve acted like hikers, and the vampires wouldn’t have known any different. Other than them knowing what I looked like. Oh, and smelled like—the two vamps had caught a good whiff of me several weeks earlier.

  Every few minutes, Abel motioned for us to pause, and we took turns looking at the landscape through his binoculars.

  The going was slow. Abel wasn’t willing to let us actually walk, so we spent a lot of time on our hands and knees, hiding behind boulders and climbing over oaks that clung to the side of the mountain. It got pretty steep a couple of times. Finally, though, I found what we were looking for.

  Bumping Abel’s shoulder, I whispered, “Look,” before handing him the binoculars, then pointing at a large boulder near the trail. “Just to the right of that,” I said. “Can you see it?”

  He hesitated, then nodded. “Yes, they’re asleep.”

  If he saw what I’d seen, he would know there were at least twenty of them. I could feel a pull on my magic, indicating that they were keeping themselves hidden from the average person.

  “You sense their magic?” I asked.

  He nodded. “It’s strong.”

  I’d been wanting to ask him more about how things had been going since he’d Restarted, but wasn’t sure how to bring up the topic. He’d been so cranky, and I didn’t want to push his buttons.

  Abel handed the binoculars back to me, and I stared at the place where the vampires were.

  “Everything is red,” I said.

  Abel nodded. “I’d guess these vampires use blood to mark their territory.”

  “That’s disgusting.” I grimaced. “Besides, it defeats the purpose. They’re using magic to hide, right? So why put blood everywhere?”

  “It’s probably invisible to the average eye.”

  I scoffed. “Almost a fourth of the population is magical.” A slight exaggeration—for over a hundred years, most people could only have one or two kids, and with the fourth child of a family being the one who gained magic, Aretes were fairly rare.

  Abel recognized my little slip, and gave me a smile. “But you know as well as I do that most Aretes don’t develop their powers enough to even sense magic.”

  I nodded, giving him his binoculars. “Let’s go now. We’ve got lots to do.”

  “That’s all you wanted to do here?” he asked.

  “I don’t see what else we can do right now. We’ve gathered information on them—how many there are, where they’re staying, and the fact that they’re using blood and magic.”

  “But what are they doing?” Abel asked. “Why don’t we try to figure that out?”

  I raised an eyebrow. “How? It’s not like we can go and ask them.”

  Abel met my gaze with an intense one of his own. “Why not?”

  I rolled my eyes. “If that’s what you want to do, be my guest. I’m going back to searching the storage units.”

  Abel grumbled, but he followed me back to Margo’s house. On the way down, we discussed the pros and cons of alerting the authorities to the fire vampires’ presence.

  “I just don’t want to have unsuspecting cops running into the situation and getting des
troyed,” I said.

  “But vampires are practically dead during the day, if not completely.”

  “Good point. So, call Cole, and see what he thinks?”

  Abel nodded. “That’s the best we can do. They need to be aware of the hive just in case anything happens. Even though there’s not a lot they can do themselves to get rid of the vampires, they can always put out a warning to people who are in the area or who hike up there. Maybe they can string a story about suspected gang activity.”

  Gang activity. In Alpine. I chuckled. Alpine was a quiet little town full of wealthy people. I doubted they’d ever had gang problems.

  We thanked Margo, and told her, yes, we did discover what we were looking for and to be careful, then headed out.

  Once we were in the car, Abel glanced at me. “We should have given her a better warning than that. Vampires eat people, which means everyone here is in danger.”

  I shook my head. “I disagree. So far, all of the attacks have been deeper into the valley. I don’t think they would kill in their exact area. It’d draw too much attention. They want to be invisible there, not to have neighbors panicking and cops running in.”

  “That was before the fire vampires connected with you,” he said. “They were stopping to eat while trying to find you. Now that they know where you are, they have no reason to hunt in the city anymore.”

  He had a point, but my stance was still valid. “They can’t be killing in the canyon. It’s far too risky.”

  We were almost to the next storage unit when we got a call back from Detective Cole. I answered immediately. “What did you learn?” I asked.

  “A Lone Peak cop decided to investigate,” he said.

  “I hope he didn’t go by himself,” I said, giving Abel a worried expression. That would defeat the purpose of warning them in the first place.

  “No, about five went.”

  Five wasn’t enough.

  “I tried to convince them to take more than that, but it’s tough to get them to understand without telling them what exactly is going on. Besides, they’ve got a small force, and five is a lot to take away from other duties.”

  “Okay. What happened?”

  “It was a camp, all right. There was no blood, and the only thing they found was one man.”

  “Was he alive? And awake?”

  “Yes to both. Apparently the man is in horrible condition. Starving, emaciated. They’re taking him to the hospital, where they’re hoping to get him fed and ready for questioning.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Keep me posted.”

  “I will. You do the same. Good luck.”

  I itched to go to the hospital to find out this man’s story—who he was, where he’d come from. If he was a fire vampire and all of that. But I didn’t want to derail myself from the task I’d pretty much been called to fulfill. My job was to protect the citizens of this state and to get rid of the hounds. Sometimes one job got more time and attention than the other. Right now, hunting and killing hounds came out on top.

  We arrived at the storage facility and followed the steps we’d established earlier. I was getting tired of this work and slumped against the cinderblock wall of the last unit when we didn’t find anything.

  I turned to Abel. “We have to get back to the first one. I feel like it’s where they’re staying.” We should have searched it more thoroughly earlier, but I didn’t want to say so and risk annoying him.

  “Fine. Whatever.”

  Abel didn’t look nearly as irritated as I expected. Perhaps he’d had time to adjust to the idea that maybe we’d been wrong not to talk to the owner.

  We drove back to that company and entered the office.

  Chapter 18

  “What can I do for you?” Tony, the owner, asked. If he thought it was weird that I was back so quickly, he didn’t let on.

  I sat down across from him and rested my arms on the desk, clasping my hands. “I have to be honest with you. I didn’t come here as a customer.”

  With Abel standing behind me, arms folded and looking more intimidating than he needed to, I ran through the scenario we’d been telling people all along, explaining about the explosives and the possibility that there were terrorists hiding out in Tony’s facility. His eyes grew wider and wider the more I talked, and I almost felt bad that I was causing concern. Until I considered the fact that hounds were plenty of cause for concern. The warier he was, the better.

  “Oh, wow,” he said. “I’ll help you. Let’s go right now.”

  He wanted to come? Bad idea. “Don’t you need to watch the office?”

  Tony blinked. “Oh. Right. Okay. Just . . . just let me know what you find. And which unit it is.”

  I handed him my business card. “I will. And give me a call if you hear anything.”

  He snatched up the card as if it was a lifeline. I felt bad again, but realized we didn’t have much choice here. He needed to be warned. Maybe that feeling came from the amulet. I wasn’t sure.

  Abel and I started slowly down the rows, me pausing outside each door. My heart was thudding in my chest, and my palms were sweaty. I felt like I was on the verge of exploding. I walked on the balls of my feet, as if that would help me run faster. Something was here. I knew it. And without the effigy drawing hounds away from me, I felt incredibly exposed. It didn’t matter that I had Abel there to help, and the amulet—the itching, burning sensation in my skull wouldn’t go away.

  Abel had to be sensing something too. Either that, or he was feeding off my nervous energy. The tension was thicker than gravy.

  We passed the storage unit I had rented, rounding the corner, and the amulet started talking to me.

  Straight.

  I gasped, hand circling the necklace, turning to Abel. “They’re here,” I whispered. “The amulet’s giving me directions now.”

  His mouth set in a firm line and he nodded, motioning for me to continue.

  Thank you, I thought to the amulet. Show us the way.

  Following the amulet’s directions, I walked to the end of this row, turned, and entered a row of the very, very large units—the ones that were big enough to house RVs and other huge vehicles.

  Abel and I dropped into a crouching run as the amulet’s directions came faster.

  Turn right.

  Straight.

  Stop.

  Here.

  I glanced at the huge door next to me. I put my finger to my lips, then pointed at the unit.

  Just to be positive we had the right place, Abel and I circled the entire row, and the amulet guided us back to that unit. Once we were sure of the hounds’ location, Abel motioned for us to leave, and we headed back to the manager’s office.

  “Um,” Abel said, “aren’t the hounds able to sense when someone’s thinking about them? Did we just alert them to our presence?”

  I glanced at him. “No. Apparently the potion muddles the weak-minded ones, and those that are stronger were already aware of us. Besides, the thirty-six hours haven’t ended yet, and the whole reason the effigy was created was to keep people safe. We’ll strike while they’re still reorienting themselves to chasing after me instead of the effigy. I figure they’ll gather here as they realize they’ve been tricked. Hopefully, we can snag a lot of them tonight after my date.”

  “You have a date?”

  I winced. I hadn’t been planning on telling him. “Yeah, I do.”

  “With whom?”

  “Just a guy.” None of your business, dude.

  “I should go with,” he said.

  “Are you serious?”

  “I am.”

  “I’m not bringing another man on my date.”

  He glowered at me. “It’s not safe for you to be off gallivanting right now—not while the hounds are figuring things out.”

  “Look, I’ve known him for a long time.”

  “How long?”

  “Since high school. And why are you being so protective?”

  Abel closed his eyes, obviou
sly forcing himself to relax. “I find myself with this stupid urge to make sure you’re safe.”

  I stared at him. We’d been outside Tony’s office for several moments now, and the man was probably wondering why we hadn’t come in. “Stupid urge?”

  Abel rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry. I didn’t mean that. There’s just something about you that draws me in. I’ve been trying to fight it, but when I’m around you, I can’t even remember why I shouldn’t fall for you. I want to know everything about you. Be everywhere you are. It’s driving me nuts.”

  He gazed into my eyes, and my heart almost stopped beating for a moment. The expression of intensity on his face was so strong, I didn’t know whether to step away or move closer.

  I swallowed, my eyes dropping to his lips. His beautiful, beautiful lips. “We’d better go inside now,” I said. “Tony’s probably wondering.”

  “Oh. Yeah. Tony.”

  I turned and fumbled with the door, my body burning as I felt his gaze on me. Whoa. Crazy man. Even as I thought that, though, I couldn’t deny the urge—the ache I felt to pull him close, to touch his face, his hair, to see what it would be like to kiss him. I finally got the handle to turn, and we stepped inside.

  Tony looked up. His pleasant expression dropped when he saw our faces. “Bad news?”

  I nodded. “They’re here. I’ll alert the necessary people.” I bent over the desk in front of him, making it impossible for him to look away. “Do not—do not—act any differently from how you normally do. If you stay in this office most days, you stay in this office. Don’t go looking for them, don’t call the cops, don’t do anything that would bring attention to yourself. These are dangerous people. They will kill you. Now that we know they’re here, we have to be absolutely certain they don’t feel like anyone suspects them. If they catch on, bad things will happen. I’m sure I don’t need to go further into that.”

  Tony nodded quickly, his eyes wide. “Okay.”

  Maybe I’d scared him enough.